My Response to Jackson's Post "A Conflict of Truths, and The Fifth Sun"

Hi Jackson, thanks for your thoughts! I definitely agree that the Europeans made no effort whatsoever to really understand the natives. Had they done so, history likely would have played out in a much different (and better!) way.

On non-moral issues, I completely agree with you - there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing something in a different way than someone else does it. Here, different is not bad - in fact, it is good! On another level, though, I do think there has to be some universal standard for morality. In effect, I believe there can be a part of different that is bad. What if someone killed another person for no obvious reason, and then justified his or her actions by saying, "I believe it is okay to kill someone else for no reason. It is part of my set of moral rules. You don't have the right to call my belief wrong just because you don't think it's okay." I hope we would not agree! Obviously this is an extreme example, but hopefully it proves the point: We need to be very careful with an unqualified statement like "People don't do anything wrong, they just do things differently from each other." When we start down that road, people's beliefs start to infringe on others' personal rights.

That said, culture does not determine a person's worth. In that, I completely agree with you. The Spanish were no better than the people they conquered, and we as Americans are no better than the Spanish. We are all the same - we are all human beings! I hope we remember to treat everyone equally with dignity and respect.

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